Black and white goodness...

Another treasury! My black and white apron is featured here in the treasury made by lovemyhoneybeezz

I think I need to go play over at Etsy and make a treasury now... especially since I still can't find my car keys.

Treasuries Galore!

It's no secret I love treasuries on Etsy. I love looking at them, making them, and feel super fancy when I get featured in one! So imagine how fancy and honored I felt when I found out I was in not one, but two treasuries! I just revamped my Etsy store, so I am so glad that other Etsians are finding me again :) Thanks so much to Gaia's Gatherings for featuring my little witch hat in her spooktacular witchy treasury...

And thanks to Bubbletime for putting my newest creation, flour sack towels, in her pretty autumnal collection...

I love this time of year - witchy goodness and warm autumn colors... The boys and I decorated for Halloween this weekend, and then we carved pumpkins :) I made a delicious batch of pumpkin seeds (and ate waaaay too many) and plan on getting more pumpkins at the Farmer's Market tomorrow.  I think the food and the decorating are my favorite things about this time of year... and of course the Halloween holiday specials! I love Linus and his quest for the most sincere pumpkin patch...

What do you love about this time of year? I'd love to hear :)

Halloween, Some Pretties, and some aprons of course...

I know, I know- I keep changing my look.  But the weather out there is telling me that Halloween is fast approaching, so I may as well may my blog match the witching hour. Speaking of the witching hour...

This year, the fabulous Vanessa Valencia is hosting her enchanting Halloween Party again this year, and I had such fun last year, I am joining in again. This year's festivities commence on October 16, so be sure to hop on your broom and head over to my witchy little cottage, as I have some fun and treats planned for all my spooktacular friends...

Speaking of treats...

I meet the nicest people at the Farmer's Market, and I come home with the lovliest flowers and tastiest produce! One of the sweetest people I have met lately is Jacqui, of jenandjacdesigns...

 A fellow Etsian, Jacqui makes the cutest little hair clips, and she creates amazing altered couture for kiddos... and she is as sweet as can be. Jacqui makes Market days pass quickly as we talk kids and sewing all day :)

Last Sunday was chilly, but it still was a fine day to head to Market. I even took Johnny with me :) My little helper begs me each Sunday morning, "Please let me go to market with you?" So this week I relented. He helped me pack some toys, a big blanket, and some snacks, and we were off! 

He helped set up the tent and he made my display of hats...

and little fabric veggies!

And he found my camera and took a picture of these lovely ladies who stopped by and found some paper shoes they just had to have :)

Finally, here is a peek at one of my aprons. I think of this one as "chocolate raspberry". Decadent and sweet, with heavy and supple fabrics...

 

I love the brown and white polka dots, and the fabric ties make the most beautiful bow:) This one has some darling shabby chic rolled fabric roses on the bodice -

perfect for the domestic goddess!

Are you a Good Witch?

NOTE** I am entering this hat into the "Crafting with the stars" contest :) Wish me luck!

How can you not love the new Halloween papers from Graphic45? Alice in Halloweenland is perfectly perfect for the projects I love to make: vintage, whimsical, and delicious colors. Adoring all things witchy, I made several of these darling little witch hats. Relying heavily on the graphic45 papers, I also used fabric, ribbon, bottlecaps, vintage buttons, odds and ends... I love to mix materials.

I sold a few at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and may put some up on Etsy. After I got home from Market, I had a bee in my bonnet to take the boys to the Family Fun Fest in Grand Blanc. I think listening to the carnival sounds and smelling popcorn all day made the festival irresistible. So after I rushed home, I changed my clothes and had Steve help me get the kiddos ready. We got a pizza on the way (my picky eaters won't even eat Carnie Food - what is that about?) and had a picnic in the park before going to the carnival. Mikey decided he was content to play at the park playground, as was Dad (he said just listening to the Tilt-A-Whirl made him nauseous), so Johnny and I took off for carnival fun.

He won a blue turtle, went through the fun house, and rode down the Gigantic Fun Slide twice by himself. I was super impressed that he did it by himself, it was super tall (I think I was more nervous than he was). And he got some free balloons from a nice lady, just because he is just that cute. He had an absolute blast, and Mikey was tickled to have Dad all to himself to help him do the monkey bars. It was a win-win for all!

The only not-so-fabulous part was that as I was getting the monkeys in the tub, I started to sneeze. And feel drippy and tickly. Sure signs of an end-of-summer cold. Bluck. I feel icky this morning, but have too much to do to be sick. So I am refusing to succumb to my desire to plop on the couch and sniff all day. I am hoping sheer will alone will heal me :)

Ooooh, and Glee starts tomorrow!

How exciting is that?

Autumny Goodness (What? It's a thing...)

It was so nice to be chilly last night.

After weeks of hot weather, I relished the need to have to snuggle under the quilt and curl my chilly toes up under my legs.  I was at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and the booths were bright with pumpkins and squash, gourds and Indian corn. I instantly wanted to find a caramel apple to eat...

Autumn is cuddly. Warm blankets and socks, hot drinks and steaming baked goods... Not only is Autumn cuddly, it's yummy.  Lookie at all the pretties I found on Etsy:

I know Autumn isn't officially here yet, so I have yet to give up my "summery" colors and fabrics just yet. I finished this apron last week, and the lemon pie sweetness pair with pink lemonade roses are my apron tribute to summer.

Hope you have a great day!

Apronology

So I am pretty sure that aprons are the funnest thing ever! My inner "English teacher" cringes, but the sentiment is true. I have been sewing up a storm, which is funny because when I initially purchased my sewing machine, it was to stitch on paper, not fabric. Now I find myself making hems, adding ruffles, and making linings! Who knew?


I think my latest apron looks kind of "scrapbooky" even though I am working with fabric, and not paper. Piecing fabric is a lot like paper piecing. I love digging through my stash to find bits of green toile for trees, sprigged ivy fabric for rolling hills... Of course, this now means I will go broke buying not only scrapbook paper but fabric too :( New obsessions can get pricey... I also like to check out the antique shops and estate sales to find lovely bits of embroidery, handmade lace - now that Spring is here, I can't wait for auction season! Yay!

I have a few pretties listed on Etsy, and have had some nice emails suggesting I submit some of my aprons to Apronology. Have you seen this fabulous publication? Somerset has a magazine for just about every creative obsession out there :)

Once Upon an Apron... and Banana Bread

In my latest obsession with apron making, I combined my love for old quilts, vintage finds, and paper piecing...

When I scrapbook, I adore making little vignettes; houses on rolling hills, elaborate trees on lush landscapes... you get the idea. I also love the look of primitive samplers and quilts. I had made this sampler a few months ago


(and sold it to a dear and darling customer!) and have been itching to make another. Until then, however, I decided to try to make a little landscape art. But this time, I used all fabric, and instead of paper, my canvas was an apron.


I used some fabulous fabric I got at an estate sale. I think it is floursacking - it is so thick and supple! A combination of new fabrics and vintage lace were the rest of my materials, and a tiny little old button was the perfect doorknob :) After much deliberation, I decided to list it on Etsy. I thought about keeping it, but now that it is up for sale, it gives me an excuse to make another!

As for the banana bread...

This weekend, I had the grand idea to make some banana bread. The recipe is my Great Grandma Tessie's recipe, for "Fruit Loaf", and whenever I make it, I usually double it. Well, I had quite a few bananas, and whenever I do make this yummy bread, my dear friend Kelly begs for some - with chocolate chips, of course :) So what do I do? In my ambition, I multiplied the recipe by six. Twelve cups of flour, six cups of bananas, a dozen eggs...

My mixing bowl overfloweth....

It all turned out in the end (my arms got quite the workout. Mixing that much batter is way more taxing than a rowing machine, my friend) and I even had enough for six loaves and six muffins :)

Kelly will be happy :)

Springing Forward...

I feel as if I have been in hibernation - and in some regards, I have. I have missed Blogland! My plate seemed to get so full that I had to crawl into my cave and catch up. Nothing horrible or earth shattering - just one little thing piled up upon another little thing, until my plate became a heaping platter and I had to take a break. Of course, now that I feel like I have caught my breath, I lose an hour to daylight savings time. Blasted Spring Forward, anyway. I miss that hour! I feel like I am cheated of that sixty minutes not just today, but for at least two weeks... my body and soul fight this change like no other...

But I am back! During my hiatus, I fixed my wonky stove, discovered how fun cooking can actually be, and have been teaching myself to sew with fabric and not just stitch on paper! I also painted my kitchen.

I have been a busy girl.

It is funny how one thing leads to another. I ordered the part to fix my stove, and when it came, I wanted it fixed right then and there. Instead of waiting for the hub to get home, I pulled the stove out (how does it get so dirty back there? And that plug? HUGE!), found some tools, and fixed it myself. After cleaning behind the stove, I realized how much I hated the white walls in my kitchen, and how dingy they looked. So I loaded the twins in the van, went to the hardware store, and bought pretty robin's-egg-faded-blue paint and brushes.

I painted until 1am.

Now that I had a nice clean kitchen and a functional stove, I looked around and decided I hated how grubby my kitchen chairs looked...

The next thing I know, I am hauling out the sewing machine and stitching chair covers. I had these really cool old coin bags, and I thought they would make nifty "shabby chic" covers if I split the seams, stitched on some ties... and then decided a tablecloth would be nice. Something with a bit of blue...

Because my kitchen was now so pretty, I decided I should spend more time there, so I started digging out my old recipe collections. Nerd that I am, I have been collecting recipes since I was about twelve years old. Notice I said collected them. Never really used them until now.

I have been cooking up a storm!

And when I was cooking, I found myself wiping my hands on my shirt (I can never find a towel when I need it) and pretty much destroying my clothes. What I needed, I said to myself, was an apron.

I didn't own an apron.So I decided to make one. And have found a new passion that has now consumed me. Apron making! I have so many fabulous fabrics and vintage linens, I have been making aprons all week! I have a few listed on Etsy, and have a few started that I hope to finish this week... Ah, the joy of a new obsession... and it all started because of my wonky stove.

And the stockings were hung...

It is so hard to believe that Christmas is so close! Wasn't I just handing out candy to trick-or-treaters? Didn't I just make pumpkin pies and roast a turkey? Time, like snow, is flying too fast!



I have had some camera issues - as in, the children had decided it would be fun to play photographers on Safari with Mama's camera - and as a result, there was one time-out, a bit of yelling, and one broken camera. If I hold the lens on just so, I can get a halfway decent photo... but if I lean over too much, the lens falls out and then there is more yelling...

I was able to take this picture of a layout I made for Etsy. The stockings were pretty fun to make - I don't know if you can see it or not, but the red one on the left has a real jingle bell on the curly toe :) I had to get creative with my layering to fit the word "stockings" on the one 12x12 page, but was able to manage it. And let me tell you - so glad that I got back into stamping, because my ink in my printer is out, and I wanted to print "hanging the" on some cardstock... but luckily I have my little set of letter stamps, and stamped them out instead!

Speaking of stamping... If I can get my lens back on my camera today, I will take a picture of my card for the "Once Upon a Wednesday" challenge at Pixie Cottage! I created the sketch for this challenge, and it is simple and sweet :) While I am fiddling with my camera, head over to the Pixie Cottage Blog to see the other DT member's take on this sketch. You have lots of time - until December 20 to enter this every-other-week challenge, so get your sketch on!

Big Sales, a treasury, and don't forget to Play with the Pixies!

I love the holidays, and I love my family, but let me tell you... I am glad for things to get back to "normal." Everyone goes back to work and school tomorrow, and the schedule-lover within can't wait for the routine to resume. Of course, now that I am updating this post, I have two little boys home with coughs camped out on the couch watching cartoons and drinking apple juice...

My mom and dad assured me the turkey was fabulous, and they agreed that the pecan pie was the best they had ever had. I love my folks! I was sooo nervous hosting my first Thanksgiving, but it went pretty darn smoothly! I made all my pies the day before, and prepped my casseroles the night before. I even watched an episode of the Martha Stewart show about preparing a turkey... I didn't use a cheesecloth or brine ole Tom in white wine, but I did slather on the butter like she instructed :)

So now I have a refrigerator full of yummy leftovers. My husband has to have a simple procedure done on Monday, and has been on a liquid diet. Nothing solid since Saturday morning - and fabulous wife that I am, I said I would do it too. Misery loves company and all that. Plus I would feel bad loading up my plate with turkey and stuffing while he sadly sips bland broth... I'm trying to remember if he gave up coffee with me when I was pregnant...

I didn't brave the crowds this weekend, opting instead to stay in my jammies, eat broth and put up the Christmas tree. I have a big sale in my Etsy shop, though - still doing the *Buy Three, get one FREE* card sale, and am also offering free shipping on all goodies! I also plan to list some seriously sweet paper cupcakes today. I think all this broth and liquid nonsense is manifesting itself into my crafts - all I want to do is piece together cupcakes...

Oh, and I am also featured in a treasury! As many of you know, I am obsessed with treasuries! Nightlady made a super pretty treasury of Blue Christmas, and my paper flowers are among some really pretty blues...


Don't forget that the latest challenge at Pixie Cottage is "Getting Stitchy!" I am having camera issues, and hope to get that resolved asap - I want to share my stitching on my card for the challenge! But have no fear - the fabulous design team has lots of pretty cards for you to look at on the Pixie blog. You have until Sunday, December 6th to enter, so lots of time yet!

I hope you have a great day. I can't wait to raid the refrigerator tonight...

Let It Snow!

I am super excited about a new project - Self Standing Scrapbook pages! I have had such fun with the easel cards, so I decided to do some experimenting and paper engineering... and made some scrapbook pages that are display pages! I am making some for my Etsy store, some for Christmas gifts, and some for me!

Here is a snowy themed one. It has a little paper pieced boy on it. He reminds me of Randy from "A Christmas Story". You know, the little brother that "can't put my arms down!" There is a photomat, a journaling pocket with tag, and I even made a protective case/envelope for when it isn't on display :)

SALE, SALE, SALE! ... and good morning of course :)

I found a challenge that asked to create an easel card, and I was a little intimidated at first, having never made one... but then I did! It was fun, and wasn't too difficult at all :) I love the display aspect of these cards. Very fun! I need to take pictures as soon as the sun decides to come out :)

I watched Bring It On yesterday (I know!) and totally got into this cheerleading flick. I am a movie producer's dream - I pretty much get immersed in any movie if I get watching it :) So I was cheering away and making cards all morning while the pumpkins were at preschool...

"My name is Kristen! Yah! And I make cards! Yah! Gooooooo Crafting!"

With all the cards I have been making, I need to clear out my shop to make room! If you fancy stocking up, check out my Etsy shop - I am having a Buy THREE cards, get one FREE! Sale :)


A happy day to you!

Running on Empty, Cupcakes and Girly Girl-ness

For starters, I want to go on the record and say that I love Daylight Savings Time. The Fall one. I really, really enjoy falling back and getting that extra hour - especially with Christmas only about seven weeks away. The Spring Forward thing I am not so fond... So between this extra hour and all my vitamin C and echinacea, I have been a scrapping fool...


It feels like Halloween was forever ago, and yet it was just last week! In fact, it was a week ago that I made these little yummies...


I felt sooo fancy because, while the cupcakes were from a mix, and the frosting from a can, I tinted that canned frosting orange. I know - Martha Stewart I am not, but for a gal who usually plops the batter in a pan and pretty bakes just so she can lick the beaters, going that extra yard and coloring the frosting and adding sprinkles and adding a fake spider, well - fancy! I packed the cupcakes in the van, crammed Johnny in his winter coat, and hit the road with an extra five minutes to spare, heading to Mikey's class party...

... I should have known things were going too smoothly.

Exiting off the highway, I was about to hit the brakes to slow down, when my van started to slow down by itself. Now, my "Low Fuel" light was on (it almost always is - I know, I know - naughty me. I put a few dollars in here and there...) but I was pretty sure it hadn't been on that long... anyway, by the time I got to the traffic light, my steering wheel was locking up. I coasted through the red light using every ounce of energy to turn right, and landed mercifully in the driveway of the gas station with my tailend still in the road.

It was raining, I didn't have my purse, and Johnny was asking, "Where are we mama? The party isn't here, is it? Hey mama, hey mama, what are we doing? Hey mama...." Long story short, two attendants, one random lady getting gas, and little old me pushed the van to a pump (they let me get gas on my honor to return to pay) while Johnny was yelling that he wanted to push the van, too...

I left the gas station with a grateful heart, and four cupcakes less :) I returned later that night to pay for my gas, and my faith in the goodness of strangers is restored. Thank you, Speedway on Hill road, and thank you Random Lady who helped push my van in the rain...

On a happier, and less soggy note :), I listed probably one of the cutest girly-girl layouts I have ever made on Etsy this morning...


It doesn't have any crazy elaborate piecings or anything, but I just love the colors, and the papers from Prima are some of my favorites. And I made these cutie little flowers - my new favorite things! I might just make a bunch of these pretties and finish watching Baby Boom tonight after the boys go to bed... I just love Diane Keaton, and every time I watch this movie I want to move to Vermont and help her make baby food...

Hope you are having a great week, too!